While it may be true that there is strength in numbers, first year Camp Verde Spiritline coach Jill Ashley is finding out that strength is the most important thing.

While Ashley’s squad of eight girls may not be big on the numbers part of the equation, she said her girls are not lacking in strength.

“All of our girls are very muscular, very strong, do a lot of lifting,” Ashley said.

Strength training is something Ashley said the girls do on their own time — in addition to the team’s regular practices — and many of the girls are also involved in other sports, such as gymnastics, which require both strength and finesse.

Spiritline is a combination of cheers, poms and stunting, although Ashley said her team is concentrating primarily on their cheer and pom routines right now.

“We’re only doing cheers and dances,” she said. “We’re not going to do the stunting right now because we’re working on polishing that and doing it perfect, and then we’ll bring that out.”

Several of the girls are returning from last year’s squad, although the team has some newcomers. Still, Ashley said she doesn’t believe in placing any of the girls above the others, even though some have been cheering, dancing or doing gymnastics for a very long time.

“I don’t have captains because in my mind everybody’s equal,” Ashley said. “However, we have an awesome group, everybody’s very good at what they do.”

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Aug. 14 issue of the Camp Verde Journal.